Let's start with a very basic truth, a concept that cannot be disputed. It is impossible for corporate profits to grow larger every single quarter. This quarter cannot be larger than the last quarter forever and ever on into the future. And yet, that is the premise of capitalism... greater profits upon greater profits, eternally, perpetually, in perpetuum. It is a false concept. To exist, capitalism must cheat on this underlying ideal.

Selling the management of public resources to private concerns is dangerous and exactly how dangerous cannot be exaggerated. Looking at a few areas of the vast transfer of control from public to private demonstrates the folly of the idea.

As capitalism has taken over the political system of America, and as the appetite for greater and greater profits cannot be fulfilled in the classic fashion, capitalism has looked to expand into the 'commons', to seek private profits from areas public interest. The logical conclusion of this is a reduction of things that are for the public good. As things once public become more and more private profit centers, the public is left with less and less. There truly is no other way of looking at it. There is only so much of anything. Whatever the subject, if more is in the hands of the private, less is in the hands of the public.

The Corrections Corporation of America, largest company operating private prisons, has written to 48 states offering to take over the running of prisons, provided that the states guarantee a 90 percent occupancy.

The systemic corruption this invites is breathtaking.

With the development of human cultures there has always been a general agreement that some things such as water and air, belong to everyone. There is the broad reaching idea of the 'commons' which has directed much of human activity for the the largest part of history. In Europe the notion of private property developed during the Renaissance along with the beginnings of capitalism. But, even then, there was a recognition of matters of common concern that eclipsed the privileged prerogative.

Proof of the failure of capitalism is the massive and inevitable collapse of the financial markets. Each quarter of earnings cannot possibly be bigger than the last quarter of financial earnings. As government is invested in the capitalist ideal, the collapse has deprived government at every level of funding. The financial hardship then leads to an even greater call for private investment in the commons, the only thing not already owned by capitalism.

Capitalism makes every effort to convince the public that it is in the public interest for capitalism to have more while the public has less. Even in light of the evidence to the contrary, the public has largely bought into this concept of giving more and more to the private and having less and less for the public.

It is important to understand the basic concepts surrounding 'privatization'. On one side is the basic principle of 'capitalism'. On the other side are the American people. It really is that simple. Capitalism or the American people.

Prisons are not meant to be, nor should they be, profit-making enterprises. They have functions to fulfill. That’s not to say that budget matters are unimportant, only that they cannot be the sole criterion for proper operation.

Government is not supposed to be a profit-making enterprise. But any governmental function, once privatized, becomes exactly that.

It is, as we discovered when Blackwater mercenaries murdered Iraqi civilians for pure sport, exempt from U.S. law and the control of the American government which hired it.

Privatization of public services, public properties, public responsibilities, is a one-way ticket to hell.(source)

Among important public resources that need our protection are libraries. Libraries cannot be evaluated in terms of dollars and profits. Libraries are for -- "using our imaginations, and providing for others to use theirs, is an obligation for all citizens... for libraries and librarians to exist and help foster a love of reading and places in which reading can occur."

There is a relationship between libraries and "the building of private prisons – a huge growth industry in America. The prison industry needs to plan its future growth – how many cells are they going to need? How many prisoners are there going to be, 15 years from now? And they found they could predict it very easily, using a pretty simple algorithm, based on asking what percentage of 10 and 11-year-olds couldn't read. And certainly couldn't read for pleasure."

A library is a place that is a repository of information and gives every citizen equal access to it.

"We have an obligation to support libraries. To use libraries, to encourage others to use libraries, to protest the closure of libraries. If you do not value libraries then you do not value information or culture or wisdom. You are silencing the voices of the past and you are damaging the future." (source)

Privatization of Public Services is a dangerous error. The short term infusion of cash to strapped municipal economies is rapidly depleted, leaving citizens at the mercy of market based services which have always proved to be of lower quality and higher cost and are immune from democratic remedy. When we sell off our public properties at pennies on the dollar and lock ourselves into long term contracts with corporations which seem to have no public oversight and lobby endlessly, and successfully for more and more deregulation, we are not helping ourselves in the short term and doing irreparable harm to future generations.

The World Bank has predicted that by the year 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population will run short of fresh drinking water. Given such a grim future, it comes as little surprise that Fortune magazine recently defined water as “the oil of the 21st century.”

The natural response to such a sce- nario would be to concentrate energy and resources on protecting existing supplies, enhancing conservation ef- forts, helping vulnerable populations, improving pollution control initiatives and raising public awareness about an impending crisis that could threaten the lives of hundreds of millions — per- haps billions — of people. Moreover, such a crisis could unleash an envi- ronmental cataclysm from which the planet could never recover.

Unfortunately, this is not the thinking of corporate executives and, increasingly, government officials throughout the world. Instead, more and more of them are proposing to transfer the control of this precious re- source from the public sector to the private sector